"They sit back and see what mistakes happen. That's what they did with the iPod - they let others steam in with early mp3 players and make a mess of them."

But Mr Green said he felt the Apple designer's comments were a sign that Apple wanted to be seen as vigorously defending its work.

"When it comes to defending intellectual property based around software and appearance, it's very hard to defend that in court and to argue your position over that - rather than something that is more physical like a chip.